Flipkart & Amazon launch same day seller service

Dated: February 19, 2016

Flipkart and Amazon India have both launched initiatives to enable sellers to onboard in under an hour, the latest efforts by the two largest online marketplaces in the country to woo vendors as they race to increase sales volumes.

Amazon is calling its quick enrolment programme for sellers Amazon Tatkal – a term the passport office employs for a scheme that ensures quick processing of applications. It said Amazon Tatkal is a specially designed studio-on-wheels offering a suite of launch services including registration, imaging and cataloguing services, as well as basic seller training mechanisms.

Flipkart, which presently has about 85,000 merchants onboard, has been piloting its ‘Spotlist’ initiative since November. It was set up to provide infrastructure and training to merchants and help them get well-versed on how to catalogue their products quickly, a company spokesperson said. “Our partners will travel via Spotlist-branded vans and bikes along with the required equipment (camera, half mannequins or photo boxes) for these shoots,” this person said.

"Our conversations with hundreds of small and medium businesses reveal that there is a high level of interest among them to get online and start selling," said Gopal Pillai, general manager, seller services, Amazon India, which has about 55,000sellers on its platform. "But they are unable to overcome perception barriers of the process being time-consuming, tedious and complex. As a result many interested sellers tend to put off onboarding tasks."